Cabin Crafted

Tag: arthritis

  • Not for the Faint of Heart

    My Dad is a spry 90+ year old.  He still does most of their cooking, helps with housework, does some of his own yard work and delivers “Meals on Wheels” to folks decades younger than he.  He walks daily, hasn’t smoked since the first Surgeon General’s warning in 1964 and is much healthier than would be suspected for one his age.  His side of the family tend to exceed the average age rule, his grandmother living to 94, his mother to 88, his brother into his 80s.

    This makes me young, right?  After all, I am a senior citizen, eligible for Social Security and Medicare, but still young.  Sometimes I feel like I can still climb mountains, have learned to ride a horse in the past couple of years, garden, drive a tractor and mow acres of land.  But this winter is making me feel not so young.  As a late 20 something, I separated a shoulder skiing.  As a mid 50 something, I broke a wrist roller blading with my daughter.  The shoulder was before they sent you to a specialist and physical therapy for such injuries.  The wrist was not cast correctly and has a 17º healed displacement.  Unfortunately, they aren’t the same arm and both are aggravating me this winter.  The wrist has encouraged arthritic deterioration of my wrist bones.  This was causing me pain and after a couple of steroid shots I agreed to surgery to remove the most damaged wrist bone at the base of my thumb.  This has caused the muscles to atrophy, reducing the strength of my hand and sadly only temporarily provided any relief.  The pain affects my radial nerve so I also have pain in my elbow and my shoulder.  Not wanting to take NSAIDs regularly, I have tried capsaicin cream, OTC herbal supplements that supposedly reduce inflammation, Tart Cherry juice and just about any other alternative.  I haven’t tried acupuncture, nor have I been willing to return to the orthopedist, though I wonder if there is anything else he could do other than more steroid shots which I also want to avoid.  To add insult to injury, it has also intensified trigger finger in my ring finger on that hand.

    I’m not ready to accept aging, I’m still too young.

  • Fiber Arts and Needles

    Knitters and spinners are picky about their equipment.  They find what they like and are ardent supporters of their favorites.  Sometimes it takes a while to settle into what “works” best for them.

    I am no exception.  When I was just picking up knitting again, I would buy inexpensive needles in the size I needed for the project at hand.  As I got to be a better knitter, I learned that better needles lasted longer and were smoother to use, but I have never been a fan of metal needles, they make my hands hurt and have an off odor.  I also have learned that I prefer the shorter 3-4 inch length tips to the longer 5-6 inch one again as they don’t seem to aggravate my arthritis in my hands as much.  One of the products that has come out in more recent years are needles with interchangeable tips so that you need fewer needles and can change the cord to suit the project.  I loved interchangeable tips until my hand strength lessened due to age and the aforementioned arthritis and I could no longer tighten the connectors enough to even knit through a single row on a sweater without them coming partially or fully unscrewed.  Reluctantly, I advertised and sold my interchangeable sets on the social network for lovers of needle crafts, Ravelry.  I have thought about this problem more and more in the past year and have wondered why the designers of this style needle don’t use reverse threaded connectors, so that as you knit, you automatically tighten rather than loosen the connection.

    The problem has sent me off in search of non metal, 3-4″ fixed circular needles in a size small enough to make a hat and long enough to knit a sweater or do the magic loop technique to close up the top of a hat.  The funds from selling my beloved interchangeables will just cover the needles in the most common sizes I use in two lengths, so now instead of having one compact case of tips and cables, I will have a basket full of needles.

    The hand issues have also forced me to seek crochet hooks with larger shafts or the Clover brand that has the butterscotch colored flattened plastic handle with a thumb pad.

    I have never gotten adept at using double pointed needles and have told my daughter that I would teach her to use them, but I feel like I’m playing pick up sticks with them.

    It is all our different opinions that keep the companies in business.  Now I’m off to find an Etsy shop that sells a circular needle case that isn’t notebook sized to store my fixed circulars in once they come.  And to work on my sweater with the craft store metal needle with long tips until my new ones come..

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    The pattern is Estelle, the yarn Quince and Co. Lark in Delft.  At least I can still knit.